Posted - 06/12/2011 : 06:08
Bodge, a good link and sensible views. I had mail from my mate Bob yesterday.
Here is what he had to say:"A propos of almost nothing, when we moved into Lancaster, in February 1981, into a house that according to its owner suffered from "progressive electrical failure", we took bids from various large-ish electrical companies (it was a large-ish house), and by some distance the lowest bid was the Northwest Electricity Board (or some similar name, Norweb I think). The actual bidder was an electrical engineer who had grown up on the street, and when I asked how they had come in so low he told me it was partly sentimental, but mainly that it would be a perfect house for the Board to examine its trainee electricians on. Would I agree? Mais oui. So we turned Castramont into a technical college for the few weeks (three, think) it took to move an 1895 wiring "system" (fuses all over the house, etc.,) to something like 20th-century standards.
The young men (they were indeed all male, as I recall) and their supervisors arrived on time every day. They made sure we had power in the kitchen at least for some time every day. And hot water, too. They would map out a wiring project (by circuit, I suppose, but to some extent also by room). They would do the project in a specified time and then it would be examined by one of the masters. The 'prentice boys wore blue llibrary coats (I would all them) to distinguish them from the masters. Where their new wiring was exposed (almost entirely in the cellar, on the huge beams that held the house up) it was perfect. Parallel lines that I am sure would have extended in parallel to infinity. And by god the master ran a millimeter gauge along the wires to verify that, too.
At the end we got a long bill of particulars which included, among other things, the total length of insulated wire that had gone into the project, which as I recall was almost two kilometers, as well as how many junction boxes, wall sockets, etc.,. And I think the exact time and labour each circuit had taken. .
Something in my antediluvian brain would call that "efficiency". But no doubt it was state socialism, instead. Cheers, Bob" I replied that those apprentices are today's electricians. Where do we get the next tranche from? My postman knocked on the door yesterday as I was in the middle of a cut on one of my crankshafts. I opened the door and asked him to wait a mo while I finished the cut and he remarked that it reminded him of his college days when he did engineering and machining. He asked what I was doing so I showed him my engines etc and he was knocked out. He told me that he was struggling to wean his lad away from Playstation on to fishing and outdoor activities and mentioned that the lad was addicted to programmes like Fred Dibnah's on TV. I gave him the website address for Shed Culture and he said he'd see if he could get the lad to look through it. Who knows, it might trigger off something in the lad. If so I'll be pleased. That's why I do the Shed bit and up to date at least two fans have been nudged into getting out into their Sheds. We shall see....
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |